DIY Mr. Potato Head Play Mat

Summer is here and while there are plenty of opportunities to run and play, sometimes you need some quiet activities or crafts to keep little hands occupied without too much noise. This little Mr. Potato Head play mat is great for travel or whenever you need to keep little hands (quietly) occupied. I love the idea of quiet books because they can be played with virtually anywhere.

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I have been looking online at quiet books recently because we are going to be driving to Florida in the coming weeks and I want Oscar to have a few new and different things to play with. Of course I would LOVE to make him a quiet book of his own, but I just don’t have the time right now.

However, knowing that he is really into Mr. Potato Head, I thought I would try my hand at just one page. I found this pattern for cutting his pieces out of felt and printed it out to get started.

Our Mr. Potato Head Play Mat

I chose a few of the traditional “parts” that I know Oscar loves – the orange nose, the teeth, the mustache – and then added a few of my own for fun like the Mickey ears and the eye patch. Depending on your destination, the possibility for costume changes are pretty much endless! I am seriously considering a pair of Buzz wings and a Woody hat at the moment….

I chose a stiffened felt page for the play mat background so there would be some stability to the whole thing rather than a typical page that might be found in a book. I also thought it would be a good idea to attach it to a clipboard as well so Oscar doesn’t have to worry about the page flopping around and sending stray pieces flying.

I sewed the potato body and arms to the page but all the other parts are loose. Honestly, you can get as detailed as you want here. It’s Mr. (or Mrs.) Potato Head!

It’s really going to be hard to keep this from him until our trip, but I am going to try!

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Andrea Updyke is a married mom of two boys living in Raleigh, NC. A self-proclaimed social media nerd, she published her first book, Klout for Dummies, in 2013.
Andrea's personal mission is to celebrate the big and the small in parenting young children. She also shares her many attempts at balancing working-from-home and motherhood along with the fun stuff like traveling to Walt Disney World, running half-marathons and drinking way too much coffee.

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[…] for Less.I so, so, so wish I saw this about a month ago. I need to make one of these for traveling! A Mr. Potato Head travel mat from Lil-Kid-Things. Can you imagine all the funky faces the kids could come up with? And all […]

[…] so, so, so wish I saw this about a month ago. I need to make one of these for traveling! A Mr. Potato Head travel mat from Lil-Kid-Things. Can you imagine all the funky faces the kids could come up with? And all […]